Given associations between critical consciousness and positive developmental outcomes, and given racial, socioeconomic, and generational disparities in political participation, this article examined contextual antecedents of critical consciousness (composed of sociopolitical control and social action) and its consequences for 665 marginalized youth's (ages 15-25) voting behavior. A multiple indicator and multiple causes (MIMIC) model examined racial, ethnic, and age differences in the measurement and means of latent constructs. The structural model suggested that parental and peer sociopolitical support predicts sociopolitical control and social action, which in turn predicts voting behavior, while controlling for civic and political knowledge, race/ethnicity, and age. This illuminates how micro-level actors foster critical consciousness and how the perceived capacity to effect social change and social action participation may redress voting disparities.

Popular measurement invariance testing procedures for latent constructs evaluated by multiple indicators in distinct populations are revisited and discussed. A frequently used test of factor loading invariance is shown to possess serious limitations that in general preclude it from accomplishing its goal of ascertaining this invariance. A process of mean intercept invariance evaluation is subsequently examined, and it is indicated that within this framework there is no statistical test available for group identity in them. Rather than pursuing these popular and widely used invariance testing procedures, it is recommended that empirical studies on constructs in multiple populations be concerned in general with alternative measurement invariance examination and ensuring the inclusion of their invariance conditions in models aimed at investigating group differences and similarities in latent means, variances, and interrelationships. The discussion is illustrated using data from a cognitive intervention study.

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Low-income youths enroll at postsecondary institutions less frequently, drop out more often, are less likely to return after dropping out, and are less likely to attain a postsecondary degree than their more affluent peers. It is therefore important to understand how low-income youths develop the capacity to persist in the postsecondary setting. This article explores how contextual supports contribute to low-income (and predominantly racial/ethnic minority) youths' educational expectancies and postsecondary persistence. The authors examined these questions by applying structural equation modeling to a longitudinal panel of youths surveyed 3 times over a 5-year period, while controlling for academic achievement, age, and gender. The obtained structural model suggests meditating "chains" by which parents and peers foster educational expectancies and postsecondary persistence over time. This article suggests that precollegiate contexts and expectancies clearly matter in explaining how low-income youths progress through intermediate checkpoints-postsecondary persistence-on the path to degree completion.

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We present a pedagogical discussion on the time evolution of a Gaussian neutrino wave packet in free space. A common treatment is to keep momentum terms up to the quadratic order in the expansion of the energy-momentum relation so that the Fourier transform can be evaluated analytically via Gaussian integrals. This leads to a solution representing a flat Gaussian distribution with a constant longitudinal width and a spreading transverse width, which suggests that special relativity would be violated if the neutrino wave packet were detected on its edge. However, we demonstrate that by including terms of higher order in momentum the correct geometry of the wave packet is restored. The corrected solution has a spherical wave front so that it complies with special relativity.

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